These Fragile Threads of Trust
by Nostromo-8013
Summary: She's been alone. She's fended for herself. Then he comes back for her. But will something devastating completely shatter the bond they have? There's no way to know for sure. Not yet. The fragile trust between them might be severed forever.
1. Rescue?

_Hey guys! Houdini here, I saw Jurassic World on Monday and I **LOVED** it. If you cannot tell, I adored that little raptor named Blue. The bond between alpha and beta was just...asdfghjkll;;. Haha, anyways, here's a little fic. I wrote this one like, an hour after I got home from the movie. Admittedly I found some parts a little hard to swallow, like, how did Claire run at full speed through a jungle and from a T. Rex?!_

 _*ahem* Anyways, I shall stop before scientific me goes on about the inaccuracies in the raptors and various others..._

 _Houdini signing off now! Enjoy! Oh! and please leave a review. If you guys like this, I might just continue it! Everyone likes feedback right? Okay!_

 _Have a fic!_

* * *

Where was alpha?

Where was the one called _Delta?_

Echo?

Charlie?

The beta had no alpha. This was confusing. What was she supposed to do?  
Ah.

She knew.

Millions of years of evolution didn't rely on a surrogate alpha.

It relied on how well she could survive.

Still. She needed order. A hierarchical lifestyle had imprinted on her psyche as had her alpha. She _wanted_ it back. She wanted her alpha.

No matter how loudly, or long she called there were no responding clicks or barks. No familiar whistles.

The blue-streaked raptor shook her head and trudged on through the muddy forest. She went on for several yards until she stayed still.

Scenting the air, opening her jaw and closing it, letting the scent wash over her. A Gallimimus. And it was weak.

The raptor stalked in the undergrowth, watching the herbivore as it moved slowly, head held low. She tilted her head, it was sick.

However when Blue leaped out, that sickle-claw flicking forward to her target, the dinosaur trumpeted and made a mad dash for the field. It was unsteady on its feet and soon tripped, allowing Blue a chance to pounce.

Which she did and with a swift bite to the back of the head, the Gallimimus stopped its struggles. Blue ripped into the belly of the creature, savoring the hot blood that ran down her throat.

She froze, hearing a roar not too far.

That was a warning.

Quickly the velociraptor bolted down as much meat as she could, looking about warily every few moments.

Something about the owner of that roar was familiar.

Ah.

The crashing through the trees, the guttural growl.

Rexy.

Blue hissed at her one-time-ally.

This was the rule of the Wild.

Eat or be eaten.

Rexy was faster than Blue remembered.

She'd recovered.

While feeding on old carrion was what she'd settled for for the past month and a half, rotten meat was old. And this creature was taking what was rightfully hers.

She lunged for Blue, massive jaws snapping shut just inches away from the raptor's tail, who squawked and dove away. The Tyrannosaur was not finished with her. She lumbered after, and Blue dashed through the jungle, looking for a place to hide. Rex didn't have much of an advantage in these forests where the trees grew thick and limited space to maneuver for something as big as the larger theropod. But Rex wasn't giving up. The Gallimimus was hers. Blue needed to know that.

Blue squawked as she hit open plains.

She turned and darted back into the woods, through the Rex's legs which confused her for a moment before she turned, hitting and felling a few sapling birch trees in the process. The Tyrannosaurus had endurance, Blue had speed and stamina. She doubled back over the Gallimimus and kept going for quite some way before she realised Rex had finally just settled for the dead dinosaur.

The raptor growled and shook herself and went to find water.

There was a lake deeper in the woods.

She could smell the water, smell the plant eaters nearby. She padded along to the waters' edge to take a drink. Blue eyed the several nervous dinosaurs around the water. A Dilophosaurus was ambling over to the water, it didn't notice Blue, but the second it did...it would not be pretty.

She backed into the trees.

It was too late.

The Dilophosaurus hissed at her and Blue had no choice but to give a harsh growl back.

Showing weakness, even fleeing from this challenge would give the smaller creature an edge on her the next time they clashed, at least, make it think it did, at that moment a second Dilophosaur crept out, hissing in fury.

The raptor growled. She wasn't going to be fighting this. She'd rather live.

Blue lunged through the bushes to find a safe place to lay low.

 _ **It was later that night when**_ Blue heard the helicopters. She watched them from atop a cypress knee of a positively ancient tree. She growled.

It was what took her alpha away.

Could he be returning?

She leaped off the tree root and waded away through the muck, having to move constantly in an effort to keep herself from sinking. Blue followed the sound of salvation-at least, she hoped it would be.

She found herself running at full speed over the plains, ignoring the various dinosaurs as they shied away from her, one thing on her mind. She would watch, just out of sight.

And she did, in a clump of bushes she watched, scenting the air for any familiar scent. Barry.

And...

 _There._

Alpha.

Owen.

She chirruped and started out of the bushes when something made her freeze.

The little red dot trained on her chest told her that she should wait.

Alpha turned around.

" _Blue."_ He murmured, shock evident in his eyes. Owen's eyes lit up and he smiled happily, but not once, not once did he break eye contact. "Lower your weapon." he insisted, but the dot, wavering madly, did not break from its target. The owner of the gun seemed to be a young man, and this particular young man was frightened beyond calculation.

"Lower. Your. Fucking. Weapon." Owen commanded.

 **BANG.**

Blue gave a squeal of pain and went down.

"NO!" Owen shouted and tackled the offending man. "I had her under control you half-wit!" he snarled and punched the poor guy over and over until Barry lugged him off.

"Calm yourself, Owen!" he snapped and shoved him off the guy who was groaning.

Owen turned to his poor raptor who's legs kicked out feebly in an attempt to get away. "Nononono, Blue." Owen dashed to the raptor who squawked in protest and snapped at him. Owen tumbled back before the raptor could cause any serious damage. "Easy girl," he knelt by her side, and watched in absolute horror as her movements became slower. "Barry, get the vet." he insisted; when Barry didn't budge, he snarled the command louder and the other man went off.

Blue watched her alpha. How could he let them hurt her?  
He was supposed to protect...

Her vision went dark, blurred forms, one she recognised, others were less clear. She groaned and she saw no more.

Owen stared.

He had no words.

All this money, all this time.

All this taken, to look for Blue.

And it was all wasted, just because of one scared kid who knew no better.

Owen cursed, eyes not leaving Blue's body.

Wait.

Could it be?

Yes.

There it was. Again. Owen allowed a grim smile to creep to his face.

The vet arrived. "She's still alive, do what you can here, we need to get her back to the mainland."  
Barry wasn't all too happy with that proposition but he had nothing better to suggest so he helped the vet and Owen get the injured raptor onto a stretcher.

All the while, Owen was stroking the raptors' large head, whispering unheard words of encouragement. The man had been devastated when the rest of the pack had been killed by the Indominus but having his girl back, this was what he'd been waiting for. Barry sighed and secured the raptor to the floor of the helicopter in the back, it was impractical, but the three armed men could deal, for Barry and Owen were up front. Blue was motionless except for the occasional rise and fall of her sides in a labored manner.

She didn't have long.


	2. To Trust or Not to Trust

It was cold where Blue lay. She groaned, groggily opening her eyes, she was strapped down to a large operating table in a painfully white, disgustingly clean room. She tried to stand, but of course, her restraints prevented much movement. The raptor began to panic, Blue began to squawk and struggle.

But she froze when a door to her right opened. She growled low in her chest, trying to wriggle out of the straps, but a sharp shooting pain shot through her. She growled painfully and lay still.

"Blue, easy girl. Easy."

He sounded like her alpha.

He moved like her alpha.

He was _no longer_ alpha.

She gave a low warning growl as Owen drew close.

Just as he thought.

Grady heaved a sigh and kept his distance. "Blue, baby, it's me." he tried again. However, his raptor wasn't paying him any mind. Her brief struggles weakened her and she barely had the strength to look at him, or, she didn't want to.

Owen frowned. He'd certainly hoped it would be alright after the surgery, that she'd...he heaved a sad sigh and left the room.

"Will someone take those damned straps off before she hurts herself again?" he snapped at the nearest guy. He couldn't help it. Stress was making him irritable.

The worry for Blue's physical state trumped concern for how she'd now perceive him. So, Owen Grady would have to dig deep.

* * *

" _Blue, goddammit-" Owen cursed and held his finger, trying his best to staunch the blood flow and get Blue away from it. She hopped off his leg and nestled down on the floor, a smug look on her face._

" _You little shit,"Owen said shaking his head and wrapping his wound up._

 _The little raptor was a foot long now, and getting bigger each day._

 _She reminded Owen of the little nestling hawks he used to raise, but much more active and much faster of course. She stayed with him constantly, and treated him as her parental figure, but it was obvious she was more...independent than the birds Owen worked with._

 _The main thing was that she trusted him. And only him._

 _She looked up at him and tilted her head, squeaking slightly._

" _Yeah, yeah," He shook his head and sat back on the couch. Owen had taken the little raptor to his quarters on site, he needed to be with her each day for extended periods, otherwise there would be a backslide in training._

 _Now, he needed to start again._

" _Blue!" he said sharply. "Eyes on me." he warned._

 _Click. Clickclickclick._

 _Golden eyes trained on him._

" _Good." Owen praised._

 _However the little raptor took this to mean she was free to look away now. "Hey! No. Eyes. On. Me." he warned. The rest of the pack, smaller raptors watched from their crates. Owen hated putting them there, but at the moment, they were too dangerous to be around Blue, even if she was supposed to be beta. It didn't help that they totally disregarded Owens' authority, that gave Blue the false sense that she could too. After a few hours of that, Owen finally released Blue and the others to their paddock._

 _Blue went first, so that she could establish her own territory, and make sure she knew everything about where she was._

 _She had an edge here._

 _Barry released the rest, while Owen watched on the outskirts of the pen._

 _The raptors dove into the undergrowth, searching out the loner, it didn't take long before they found her. Blue squealed in pain as they ganged up._

 _They all knew each other from birth, and they all knew Owen, but still, ranks ran strong in their blood._

A little like wolves, _Owen thought to himself. And right now, Blue was at the lowest part of their chain. The man stood by, ready to intervene if things got hairy, when...well, they_ did.

 _Charlie had Blue's throat in her jaws, ready to clamp down when Owen shouted, "HEY!" The clicker sounded._

 _Blue was hastily released only to be shoved by Delta._

 _The little blue-striped dinosaur growled, and nipped at Deltas' heels and all hell broke loose. Owen threw his coat on them, and slowly, their struggling decreased. He dug through the tangle of claws and teeth to pick out his beta. Blue was shaking and was generally scared. However, she had gotten in several wounding blows._

" _Delta, Charlie, bad." This was all he could say, his heart pounding._

" _Owen you crazy sonuvabitch." Barry slapped his knee, laughing like an idiot._

* * *

 _She became more confident after that row. Still, alpha was there. He put them back in their place._

Owen watched as Blue, fully grown, injured just lay on the table, the straps had been removed but she refused to move a muscle.

Barry looked to Owen, the man had a face of stone, and about as expressive at the moment, no wisecrack jokes, no laughter, he was thoroughly troubled. "It'll be alright, Grady," Barry claimed and put a hand on his friends shoulder. "You'll get through to her. Five years of trust and love...that's...that's hard to break away completely."

Owen grumbled, shrugging Barry away. "No, you know what happened to Lacy." he growled and Barry grew quiet. Yes. Yes he knew exactly what happened to that sweet raptor, uncharacteristically tame, beast.

"That doesn't give you any reason not to try," Barry reasoned.

"I know that, Barry. I know, that's why I'm going to..." Owen didn't sound hopeful but he turned to watch Blue through the door. She'd moved off the table and was crouched on the floor, and it seemed she didn't take her eyes off that door.

Her growls could be heard, distrustful, angry growls.

Owen would have to start soon if there was to be any chance of redemption in his raptor's eyes.

"Hey Blue,"

 _ **A/N- I just wanna say, thank you to my lovely reviewers. I'm sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but I haven't much time to write right now, I just wanted to give you a little something until I can finish this thing! I hope you enjoyed that, so...yeah. Please leave a review, any criticism would be helpful tome.**_

 _ **-Houdini**_


	3. It's a Start

Owen awoke one morning a few days after Blue made it damn clear that she no longer trusted him. He sat up in his bed, running his hands over his face, feeling the roughness of his jaw. He hadn't shaved for several days. He also felt like crap; his head ached and his mouth was disgustingly dry. Normally, Grady was not a heavy drinker, even though he had more than his fair share of horrific hangovers and blurred nights, he wasn't _constantly_ getting drunk.

This time, the bar looked so beckoning, he couldn't resist the call. It was all the stress, of either finding Blue or not, her getting shot, and now this dilemma; trust issues. For one thing, he couldn't exactly blame her. Owen heaved himself up to get cleaned up.

Once he didn't smell like a distillery and didn't feel like a herd of apatasaurus babies weren't running around in his head, he headed slowly out towards the recovery paddock. To get to the pen, one would have to go through a long hall with floor-to-ceiling observation windows on the side looking out into the tree-covered pen. Right now, Owen couldn't find his girl, but he was sure she was closer than he thought, watching him through the thick, tempered glass.

When Owen got out into the yard, he noticed Barry was already there. The man, for once did not have that cheerfulness about him. He looked solemn.

"Hey," Owen greeted quietly, "How's Blue...?"

Barry Sy shook his head. "She won't trust me either."

Owen nodded gravely. "It's not like she's gonna forget someone shooting her, y'know. It's gonna be a long, and very slow process, Barry." He looked back out into the paddock. There was a sun-filled clearing in the middle, barely visible through the trees, but Grady saw movement. Blue.

She ambled to the clearing and lay down, her movements were slower, stiffer than normal, but she seemed to be getting better.

Owen was thankful for that.

The velociraptor turned her head towards the two men with a knowing look in those emerald eyes. She was only just visible now.

She let out a warning growl.

Barry shook his head and patted Owen's shoulder, going off to leave him alone with his girl.

It hurt him too. Along with Owen, Barry had been there too. Since the beginning, with Delta, Echo, Charlie and Blue. They were his girls too.

Five years worth of trust and training could not be gone after this could it?

Owen felt hopeless.

Like five years of his dedication was gone, just like that.

"I'm not giving up on us Blue." he assured softly.

Blue watched Alpha interestedly.

Well, he was Alpha still.

But not _hers._

He was not the alpha she knew anymore. She growled to herself and lay down her head to sleep. Her chest was hurting again.

 _ **Owen returned to his quarters after that, where he stayed for several hours.** _ He considered what would have to be done. He'd _have_ to make some sort of progress if he wanted to keep Blue. Owen shuddered to think of what would happen should the government decided that this was too risky, and destroyed all surviving evidence of the disaster of Jurassic World, thus possibly destroying Isla Nublar itself. Destroying a lifetime of work, a dream, a dream by the late-great John Hammond.

While Owen could not deny that Jurassic World was a disaster waiting to happen, something that Jurassic Park had demonstrated over twenty years ago, it was still something amazing.

Even so, Jurassic World had shown the world their ability to contain and control, they'd created a perfect theme park. It was as splendid as Disneyworld, and had the appeal and even took in more customers that the iconic Disney. It was a hit single.

But it burnt out. The public wanted... _more teeth._

So the scientists, that blasted Dr. Wu (who was still missing by the way) had to come up with something more.

Indominus Rex.

An abomination.

A monster.

A masterpiece.

Owen had felt sick.

The poor creature had been isolated.

So when she finally got free, she killed.

Owen couldn't blame her for that.

But the point was, that the park was too ambitious. As Hammond had been when he wanted Jurassic Park. Like Hammond, they ignored the warnings, the signs of overflow. _They got greedy._

And now...look what they'd done.

Owen punched a wall.

He cursed and strode back to the pen, grabbing a cattle prod and Barry. He gave Barry the instructions to save his ass should Blue decide she'd had enough of him.

Barry did not look happy. "This is crazy, Owen. Even for you!"  
"Nah. S'all good. I know what I'm doing, Barry." Owen hopped down into the pen, making sure he still had the clicker. The trainer stayed close to the walls, painfully aware of the fact that he was in the turf of a hunter, a predator, a perfect killing machine. This territory was not his own to command.

He heard a rustle to his right.

Blue must be...no.

Years of training, observing, getting to know these animals, something didn't make it hard to imagine the raptor right in front of him, watching him...It made Grady nervous, but that was not something he'd let show. Not now. Not ever.

The gloominess made it worse.

He reached in his pocket for the handheld thermal sensor. He clicked it on and immediately a very soft pinging was heard. It was fast.

So she _was_ right in front of him.

"Blue."

Answering growl.

An emerald eye shone in the gloom, there was a light behind him, and one shining into the pen.

But nothing much close to the clearing that he'd found himself in. The raptor moved out of the brush segment, bird-like in her manner.

But there was something very un-birdlike about the look in her eyes.

These were not the eyes of _his_ girl.

This was not the Blue he knew. Not his beta.

Owen stood his ground, clicker at the ready, he did not break eye contact.

He did not show any weakness.

Jack London showed the respect the Wild demanded in his novels.

He showed the majesty of a wild thing.

But never, never in a history had anyone been able to convey the unmistakable beauty in a Velociraptor, the predatory gaze, hunger. Akin to a lion or wild cat, there was something one might call soul there too. But respect was demanded.

Respect that, yes, she could tear you limb from limb, disembowel you with one flick of those devastating claws. Owen knew this and didn't take his eyes off her.

Her attention wavered.

She noticed Barry.

Clickclickclick.

"Ah-ah! Blue. Eyes on me." Owen insisted firmly.

Blue advanced, turning her gaze back to Owen, gathering herself...what was she...?

"No," Owen moved quickly just as she sprang. He rolled hard out of the way, but not before receiving a gash on his arm from a claw.

It stung and was dripping blood.

"Owen!" Barry shouted, readying to use the prod.

"Nononono!" Owen yelped, "Don't!"

Barry stopped.

Grady scrambled to his feet. Blue stood about a yard and a half away, head low, panting heavily. Her wound was still bothering her. For Grady that was probably what saved his life.

"Eyes on me."

Blue looked at him.

"Good."  
Growl.

It was a start.

* * *

AN- Hey peeps. Me again. Sooo. Here we are for chapter three! What do you think? Anyways, I might not be able to update as much. My laptop, Moaning Myrtle died..._ Sooo, yeah. I managed to get this saved on a flashdrive before she bit the dust, so, here's the third.

And I'm very thankful to my reviewers. Any questions? Anything at all?

So, I have no idea when this will end, I'm shooting for ten chapters at least, but I am not too optimistic...

And as for reviews, I practically live for reviews, it makes writing easier I think, and everyone likes feedback, so please, if you will, leave a review! I will take **ALL** constructive criticism. Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, what could change...point out any typos and the like. It really betters my writing, and believe me, I need that.

I'm out of here now...good day all!

-Houdini


	4. Anger

_**Whew, that downtime for FFN was brutal, was it not?**_

 _ **Anyways, I just wrote this yesterday and...yeah, UPDATE!**_

 _ **Here you go guys. Long awaited.**_

* * *

"What do you mean you can no longer support her? Claire, you're rolling in the freaking dough! Your employer-"  
"Tut-tut Mr. Grady. I simply mean we can no longer see the point of keeping a broken…damaged asset. Your…animal attacked one of our guards yesterday." Claire reported with that irritating nonchalance.

Owen gaped like a fish at her. "You permitted someone….someone near the fucking pen?" He asked in disbelief. "Are you that stupid or what?!" he paced about angrily. "No one goes near her without myself or Barry…or ever. Where the hell was Barry anyway? "  
Dearing cleared her throat.

"That is none of your concern, Grady-" She began but Owen cut her off, getting right up to her.

"None of _my_ concern?" Owen laughed, "Anything involving my girl is my concern you cold bit-"  
"She will be taken care of, Owen. I assure you that." Claire went on like Owen had not spoken. She moved across the room to her desk to pull out some sort of file. "Do you know of Isla Nublar's sister island?  
"What?" Owen asked, looking up, rather irritably at that. "Another island…?"  
"Correct," Claire said, offering the stiffest of smiles. "It is home to many, many species of dinosaur, prehistoric mammal and of course, extensive aquatic life. Much more than Isla Nublar could have dreamt of. We have arranged for your animal to be flown to Sorna- which is the name of the island. This will happen within the week. Anyway, you shall be accompanying the team in charge of transport. We would not want any accidents." She smiled and left the room while Grady flipped off the back of her pretty, perfect and obviously dyed head. Still pissed, Owen heaved a sigh and ran a hand through his hair before glancing up at the clock on Dearing's office wall. Oh shit. Feeding time, where the hell was Barry?  
His thoughts were answered as Barry strode past the office to get outside. "Barry!" he called and dashed out after him. The man turned.

"Owen, hello, I was just-" Barry found himself being shoved up against the door as Owen dashed out in front and pushed him. "Owen!"

"Where the fuck have you been, Barry?" Owen was still obviously pissed to no end.

"Relax, relax Owen. It's fine. I'm sorry! I was ill yesterday and-"  
"Oh just because you get the sniffles that means you can bail? Some schmuck almost died yesterday."  
"And where were you, Owen?" Barry asked, pushing Owen away. And Owen sighed.  
"I'm sorry, sorry. Just…Claire and her…"  
Barry chuckled, "I know what you mean."  
"Sorry man, it's just…some guy fucked up yesterday; got too close to the pen and Blue somehow caught him…ripped him up a bit. Claire….they're moving Blue to another island." He reported and Barry nodded.

"Do you think that is wise?" Barry requested. "It would just stress the poor girl out even more." He mused and Owen shook his head.

"I'm afraid we don't have a choice. And besides, it's like Nublar…just…more dinosaurs." He shrugged. "Anyways, I better feed Blue, it has to be me. " he insisted as Barry made a move to follow. "You know what it took to get her to see me as a person to trust last time." He pointed out, and Barry relented allowing Owen to continue to the raptor pen. Blue was pretending Owen didn't exist, but when he picked up a pail of meat from the shed off to the side she became interested, following him along the fence; where Owen made damn sure to stay far away. He kept eye contact the whole time, or tried to as stairs to the catwalk above became tricky.

The velociraptor, no matter how she regarded Owen now could not disregard years of routine to forget this. With birdlike motions she came to a stop under the catwalk where Owen stood, "Blue," he called, "Eyes on me!" he insisted sternly and looked down, she kept looking to the meat. "Come on girl, the only way this is gonna work is if you cooperate!" he sighed and clicked the clicker a few times. Those birdlike movements were paired with a very unbirdlike predatory look in those golden eyes; almost human with the amount of cruelty and cunning they possessed. Anyway Owen managed to make eye contact with the raptor who chittered impatiently.

"Alright girl…" Owen took a deep breath. "Eyes on me." He smiled, "Good girl…"

 _Alpha._

Alpha spoke, gave a command and something told Blue that she needed to obey. He was not alpha like her, but a man. Weaker and smaller, but still very much alpha. She growled, eying the dead meat that he held. Her belly rumbled and her mouth watered, it had been a little too long since her last meal. He tossed the meat and Blue caught it in midair, taking a mighty leap; and landed surprisingly softly. Owen watched her snap down pieces of the meat and let his thoughts wander. Soon his girl would be going someplace new; he found himself wondering what Sorna would be like, it would have to have to be much like Nublar, right? Of course it would have to be much, much bigger, especially to boast such a diverse array of life. See, habitats can only support a population for so long, and once the population exceeds the habitats capabilities and thus the population dies out of either starvation, illness or dehydration and often all of these. Obviously humans were taking care of this….but it would be only a matter of time….

He offered up the last of the meat to the velociraptor who lazily snapped it up and quickly ambled into the undergrowth. Still she acted skittish around Grady, evidentially still recalling the gunshot and his apparent passiveness. Owen soon left as Blue crawled away from view and he too retired to his temporary room. He lay on his bunk, watching the ceiling for the longest time, just thinking of all the things that had happened and what could possibly happen.

Grady didn't know when he fell asleep, but when his eyes snapped open he realized his dream of angered dinosaurs wasn't quite a dream. He heard frightened roars and hisses from the only resident dinosaur at this facility. He leaped out of bed; still in his boxers and dashed outside. Grady's bare feet were covered in dirt by the time he skidded to a stop at Blue's raptor pen. He gawked for a moment at the capture crew working to wrangle Blue into a large transport cage.

"What in God's name is going on?"


End file.
